This Is How GM Will Reportedly Combat Distracted Driving

The shameful excuse that America calls “driver education” hasn’t been doing enough to instill into the minds of motorists that texting and driving is a horrible idea. It’s worse than drunk driving, according to some studies, and too often people harm others or themselves. Worse still, American drivers learn next to nothing about proper vehicle control in “driver’s ed” and it further adds to the problem. And just forget about actually being aware of surroundings. So, automakers have to get creative to keep oblivious citizens from crashing into each other because they’re too stupid not to. General Motors, for example, may have found a solution.

According to Financial Times (subscription required), GM has signed a deal with safety parts supplier Takata to purchase around 500,000 “Seeing Machines” which utilizes tracking devices and cameras to detect the signs of distraction, such as the rotation of the head or frequency of blinks. It’s a very Big Brother way of doing things, and doesn’t really do anything to reform driver education, but would be a solution nonetheless. GM hasn’t commented on the matter, and there’s no telling how soon the technology will be implemented, or on what vehicles. But be sure to keep your still-not-detected-through-sensor eyes peeled for more.

Driver’s ed is part of the problem here in America. Sending them back from the place where they learned next to nothing in the first place is redundant. At least in Canada they have to re-test every few years. America doesn’t even have that.

If American driver’s ed was overahauled and improved to be a global example of what to do, we wouldn’t need all of these expensive active-safety add-ons. It would also make our roads safer in the process.